Olympic learning programme ‘must be more transparent’

Chair of Commission for a Sustainable London 2012 calls for more openness about failure in delivering a sustainable Olympics

London 2012 aquatics centre

The Olympic Learning Legacy’s sustainability programme has been criticised by the chair of the independent body charged with monitoring the Games’ sustainable credentials for not acknowledging failures on the programme.

Shaun McCarthy, chair of the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012, said the exercise had been worthwhile but there was a need for greater transparency about some of the failures in delivering a sustainable Olympics.

He said: “It is very much accentuating the positives but I think we learn much better by our mistakes. There was a Learning Legacy event, which I chaired recently, about the aquatics centre and the event was good but everything [about the aquatics centre] was wonderful.

“When one of the audience put their hands up and asked what would you do differently and what mistakes have you made, the long winded answer was absolutely none whatsoever. We don’t learn things that way.”

A spokesperson for the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), which oversees the Learning Legacy programme, said it was “simply not true” that failures had not been acknowledged. He said: “Successes have been highlighted because they provide valuable guidance for the industry.”